


Zefron Studies in the Time of Covid

by dollsome



Category: Community (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-03
Updated: 2020-08-03
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:13:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,015
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25695601
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dollsome/pseuds/dollsome
Summary: Jeff and Annie watchDown To Earth with Zac Efron. What else is there to do?
Relationships: Annie Edison/Jeff Winger
Comments: 49
Kudos: 153





	Zefron Studies in the Time of Covid

**Author's Note:**

> We've been binge-ing good ol' Community at my house to soothe our weary souls, and this story just kind of popped into being into a Word doc last night! I know that when all this started, the idea of writing Covid-themed fanfiction seemed like a big oh-no-no, but now that the world has been like this for such a long time with no end in sight, it's hard not to wonder how the fictional characters you've known and loved for a long time would be dealing with it too. So I guess that's where I am right now??
> 
> I dedicate this story to Annie's Charlie St. Cloud poster.

“Wow,” Jeff scoffs.

Annie looks over at him. He feels her feet tense where they lay over his on the ottoman underneath a designer throw blanket that she teased him for spending so much on. “What?”

“Uh. Nothing.”

Jeff made a secret vow to himself at the start of this undertaking: to let Annie have this one.

The world is hell. Like, way more so than he could’ve predicted when he thought Greendale was scraping the bottom of the barrel of life. Everything’s the actual plague-ridden, _Is this real life or_ 1984 _? I can’t tell anymore_ worst. Jeff had to figure out online teaching through Tumblr, since Greendale couldn’t afford an actual course delivery system and the Dean thought gifs would “foster student engagement."

In addition to working full time from home and having daily existential crises over what her life would be like right now if she’d stayed in hospital administration, Annie’s started a YouTube channel on dispelling Covid-19 misinformation. It’s in the hopes that maybe people who’ve written off Fauci will listen to a sweet-voiced brunette with Disney princess eyes. Kind of like Adriene from Yoga with Adriene, only instead of yoga, it’s telling people that of course wearing masks doesn’t give you ebola, you apocalypse-stoking idiots. (Jeff’s addition. It got left out of the final edit.) She makes sure to wear all her most endearing cardigans in the videos for maximum likability. (Jeff helped her rate them on a scale from 1 to 6. Historically, people rating things on a scale of 1 to 5 are way too inclined to take the easy way out and pick 3. The More You Know From Annie.) She keeps a checkmark tally on the fridge of the number of comments she’s gotten from people letting her know she’s changed their minds, taught them something. It’s way more of a non-zero number than Jeff had thought possible, even though it’s not nearly big enough.

So really, both of them have been going through enough during this hell year. But mostly Annie. (Sidenote: Jeff thinks he might be _really good_ at Tumblr.)

Under normal circumstances, Jeff would’ve put up an admirable fight before settling in to watch Down To Earth with Zac Efron. These are not normal circumstances.

But come on. Zac Efron just got shirtless, and Jeff can only stay silent through so much.

“No, what is it?” Annie prompts. “Do you mean ‘Wow, I think it’s so cool that Zac Efron’s out there exploring the world and bringing awareness to the very real, very impending issue of climate change’? Or maybe ‘Wow, I can’t believe there’s such thing as a water sommelier’?”

‘Sure.”

Annie gives him a doubtful look.

“Maybe along with a dash of ‘Wow, he’s really let himself go.’”

“What? Jeff!”

There it is: the angry swatting of his shoulder. It’s been awhile since he did something to earn that one.

“I’m just saying. His Baywatch bod, that is not.”

“So what?”

“So _what_? As an American heartthrob, he’s got a certain responsibility to keep every one of his ab muscles distinctly visible.”

“I think he looks handsome,” Annie says, glowing a little.

Jeff feels a stab of jealousy. “We’re still in agreement that Celebrity Hall Pass isn’t a concept we’re cool with in this relationship, right?”

“Of course not,” Annie says. “Unless you apply it to the whole group, and then it only applies to Troy and--”

“Clive Owen. Obviously.”

They have a moment of admiring silence for Troy’s enduring devotion to a pretty random British actor. The only more enduring devotion Troy’s got is to Abed.

“Clive aside, I love that Zac has embraced being healthy instead of having to constantly deprive himself,” Annie goes on. “Did you see how happy he was eating those carbs?”

Jeff thinks longingly of unchecked carb consumption for a second. Truly: these are the times such heinous acts were made for. “Pfft.”

“You can eat endless carbs too, you know,” Annie teases. “I’ll always think you’re handsome.”

“This pandemic is really changing you, Annie. I thought you had standards.”

“Hey. What did we say about self-deprecating remarks and body negativity?”

Jeff sighs. “That you’d force me to do a therapy Zoom sesh with Britta where she gets to the bottom of it.”

“And I mean that.” Annie points threateningly at him.

“You’ve seen Britta try to figure out Zoom. You know the suffering that would entail.”

“Maybe I do,” Annie agrees, tossing her hair aloofly.

“Fine,” Jeff relents. “If carbs are good enough for Efron, I guess they’re good enough for me. Homemade ravioli night tomorrow?”

“Homemade ravioli night tomorrow,” Annie agrees giddily. It feels really good to see her giddy. “Ooh, we should do one of those kitchen hangouts with the group where everybody tries to cook the same recipe while we all video chat.”

“Pretty sure we already know how that’s gonna go.”

“Oh?”

“Abed and Troy will wind up with buttered noodles no matter how many fancy LA millionaire grocery store ingredients they have delivered. Britta and Frankie will have another odd couple blowup over how quarantining together has ruined their lives and then make up and cry a little and hug too long, and we’ll all wonder in our Do They Know Yet About Their Own Romantic Undertones text chain if they know yet about their own romantic undertones. Shirley will dominate and then try, and fail, not to be smug about it, sending us all deep into culinary self-loathing. Elroy will … I guess I don’t really have a cooking-related read on that guy yet; he’s the wild card. The Dean will change his background to a shirtless photo of me while making lumpy pasta weirdly erotic, and Chang will probably fall out of our ceiling.”

“That sounds … really accurate, actually.” A pause. “Let’s do it!” And there’s the classic Annie Edison squeal of excitement.

Jeff sighs, because who else is going to play the role of Jeff Winger, Perpetually Too Cool For School Even If He _Is_ A Teacher Guy?

Really, Zoom has provided a miracle renaissance for the study group. Whereas once they’d only checked in monthly, if that, busy with work and relationships and buying Nicolas Cage’s second island to turn it into a dog sanctuary (that last one had been exclusively a Troy thing), now they’ve been checking in a few times a week, spending hours having conversations so pointless and great that sometimes Jeff forgets they’re not all sitting at the same table. It's the way the study group has always functioned, but now it's more potent than ever: when the world hurts, get weird together, and remember life's worth living. There’s nothing that makes him happier these days than watching each of his friends’ faces appear on the screen like they’re doing the credits of The Brady Bunch. Well, maybe the fact that he and Annie get to occupy the same square instead of looking at each other’s slightly pixelated faces from across a distance neither of them will admit they hate.

“Hey,” he says. “Have I mentioned I’m really glad we got around to this whole relationship thing before the world went full dumpster fire?”

“Me too,” Annie says. “I would have been so worried about you. I mean, I worry about everyone, and I worry about you now--”

“I told you,” Jeff says impatiently, “I’m not taking my mask off in the grocery store because I’m worried that I don’t look cool!”

“I know,” Annie says. Then she hits him with an eagle-eyed stare of scrutiny. “Or _are_ you?”

“I’m not!”

“I believe you,” Annie says. The eagle eyes come back. “Or _do_ I?”

“It doesn’t matter how many times you surprise FaceTime me because Find My Phone told you I just walked into Trader Joe’s: I will always have a mask on.”

“Then what about all those laments in front of the mirror about what a crime against humanity it is to cover up that handsome chin, huh??”

“You know what would be a less handsome look? Dying.”

“Fine,” Annie relents. “I trust you. And I’m glad we’re together.”

“And hey,” Jeff says, taking her hand, “you’ve stopped waking up screaming about the postponed wedding in the middle of the night. That’s progress, right?”

Annie huffs. “Well, _I’m_ sorry that I’m struggling with the loss of the non-work-related organizational triumph of my life so far. It would have been _flawless._ ”

Jeff doesn’t doubt that. So many binders ... 

“I’m with you,” he says. “It sucks that the wedding got postponed. I was really looking forward to you making an honest man of me.”

Annie shrugs, giving him one of those bright-eyed sly smiles. “We’ll just have to have an extra epic party when it's safe, to make up for it."

"Extra epic, huh?"

"I'm talking Make The Baz Luhrmann Great Gatsby Look Like That Boring Old Dinner Party Movie Abed Tricked You Into Recreating With Him," Annie says, gaze gleaming. "Winger and Edison, bash of twenty-twenty-…”

“One?” Jeff throws out.

Annie shakes her head, deflating a little. “Definitely not. Maybe two. Is two being too optimistic?”

Jeff thinks of his recent attempts to go on the internet and the impulse he always feels to immediately back away screaming. Never in life has he felt so consistently motivated to put his phone down.

“Winger and Edison: married by 2030, definitely,” he says wearily.

Annie sighs.

“Is it bad that the more I imagine it,” Jeff says after a moment, because now is a time for honesty, “the less I see it at the totally sane, normal wedding venue we’d picked out and the more it takes place in …”

“The study room?” Annie says, gripping his forearm excitedly.

“Yes!” He turns to face her.

“I didn’t want to say it because I thought you would hate it!”

“I thought _you’d_ hate it!”

“Jeff! When have I ever hated the study room?”

“Need I mention the pen? Or, hey, the time you _punched me in the face_?”

“You earned it, Paintball Slut.” She brightens. “Maybe if we’ve both been thinking about it, that means it’s a sign.”

“You’re probably right.” Jeff heaves an affected sigh. “I can’t believe we’re going back to our community college, a.k.a. my place of work, to get married.”

Annie’s face turns wistful. “That is, if …”

It’s true. Life has never felt more _if._

But Jeff didn’t get into the Life Partner of Annie Edison game to watch the stupid world bring her down.

“No ifs,” he says. “Sorry, Annie. It’s happening.”

He watches as his words sink in: the sadness thinks about lingering, then drifts off her face. Annie smiles at him. “You’re on, Zac Efron.”

Jeff groans. “Oh, no.”

“What? I thought it was topical.”

“It was terrible. Way too easy. And cheesy.”

“Agree to disagree-sie,” Annie says loftily.

Jeff chuckles to himself as they look back to the TV.

“Let’s watch episode two again,” Annie says. “It’ll be like we’re in Paris.”

Jeff suspects part of this has to do with Zac Efron crying beautifully in candlelight at the end of the episode, but he goes with it anyway.

Later, as they watch Zac and Darin and Anna Kendrick For Some Reason sample the world’s most basic beverage in fancy glasses, Jeff observes, “I’m pretty sure the ‘French’ water sommelier got his degree at Greendale. Only at Greendale is that a real job.”

“And now he gets to trick Zac Efron into believing that all water doesn’t taste the same,” Annie replies, at peak Annie optimism levels. “Greendale makes dreams come true.”

And well, it’s hard to argue with that.

“It sure does,” Jeff agrees, watching her affectionately.

Annie gives him another look.

“Too easy and cheesy?” he asks.

“Totally,” Annie says. She makes one of those happy little Annie sounds that he always secretly hoped would eventually become his favorite song on the soundtrack to his life, and rests her head on his shoulder, and they watch Zac Efron and his poorly defined abs and his weird health guru friend wander the hurting, wonderful world together.


End file.
